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United Earth
United Earth is the name of the planetary state created through the unification of Earth in the 22nd century following First Contact in 2063. United Earth was the state under whose jurisdiction fell Human colonies on Luna, Mars, Vega, and Alpha Centauri, and later continued to exist as a political subdivision of the United Federation of Planets when its government helped found that interstellar state in 2161. ( ; Star Trek: Enterprise) Territory By the 2150s, the United Earth government was coterminous with all major settlements made by humanity. This included all territory on Earth itself after all previous human governments united into one organization. United Earth controlled all of the Sol system, but in the 2150s, they had begun to spread to other nearby star systems. Human spread beyond the Sol system, however, had been largely hindered by their stronger Vulcan allies for the past half century, as they did not feel that Humans were strong enough to face the many threats beyond their home star system. Planetary bodies that had major Human settlements or military installations on them in the 2150s included: In the Sol system: *Earth **Lunar colonies *Mars *"Jupiter Station" is apparently a military drydock/repair facility in orbit around the gas giant Jupiter (ENT: "Silent Enemy") In other solar systems: *Alpha Centauri *Vega colony :In , in an alternate timeline in which Jonathan Archer lost his long-term memory, Earth was destroyed by the Xindi superweapon in 2154. When describing the Xindi's drive to exterminate humanity, a future T'Pol explains to Archer that the Xindi did not stop with the destruction of Earth (and thus, Luna) but went on to destroy every major human colony which existed in 2154, which she then lists as Mars, Alpha Centauri, and "Vega colony". It is uncertain form T'Pol's comments if these four planets were absolutely the only world colonized by humans, or if there may have been smaller colonies/outposts besides them. Nonetheless, this establishes that during the timeframe of the series "Star Trek: Enterprise", the "significant" planets controlled by United Earth are the Earth itself (and Luna), Mars, Alpha Centauri, and Vega colony. In the first half of the 22nd century, the most significant Human presence in space beyond the Sol system itself was in the form of "Boomers", independent Human traders that formed a merchant marine using crude, generationally-owned starships that took years to travel between destinations. While nominally under the control of the Earth Cargo Authority, by their very nature, the Boomers were frontiersmen without any real oversight from Earth and generally handled their own affairs. In a sense, these small and mobile ship-borne communities could be seen as "colonies" of a sort. During the second half of the 22nd century, as faster warp drives became more commercially available, travel time between destinations was cut down from years to months or weeks, and response by official United Earth Starfleet ships was for the first time made a practical reality, the independent frontier lifestyle of the Boomers gradually came to an end. ( ) Structure United Earth was the planetary state represented in the Coalition of Planets and later the United Federation of Planets. Government officials included Ministers. ( ) : Given the existence of the "minister" title, it is likely that the United Earth is a parliamentary government, possibly led by a prime minister. Even after United Earth was formed, many nation-states and confederations retained their individual identities. This included the African Confederation, Canada, the European Alliance, and the United States. ( ; ) United Earth had many agencies. This included the early form of Starfleet (prior to 2161), Military Assault Command Operations (MACO), the United Earth Space Probe Agency, and the United Earth Diplomatic Corps, which was responsible, among other things, for running the United Earth Embassy on Vulcan during the 22nd century. ( ; ) It is unclear what the relationship was between Earth and the off-world colonies such as Mars were: whether Mars was given equal representation under the "United Earth" government, or was treated as simply a colony administered by Earth, is uncertain. History The name "United Earth" was used as early as 2067 for the United Earth Space Probe Agency. ( ; ) By 2079, the dreams of a United Earth were believed to be nonexistent due to the post-atomic horror. ( ) The activities of the European Hegemony, which existed in the 2120s, would lead to the formation of United Earth. ( ) : According to the [http://www.startrek.com The official ''Star Trek web site], the year 2113 may be time that the United Earth came into being, however, this fact has never made it into the canon. The date is cited to by some sources, but except for Deanna Troi speaking of "poverty, disease, war" being gone in 50 years there is no line in the movie suggesting a unification.'' In 2150, the last of Earth's nations joined United Earth, making it truly global. ( ) :It is a common misbelief that Australia was the last state to join the United Earth Government in 2150, but Australia holding out was only used by Beverly Crusher as a hypothetical example when discussing the eligibility of the fractured planet Kesprytt with Jean-Luc Picard in . :It is, however, possible that the United Earth government was founded prior to 2150 and that this was the year that the last remaining independent nations chose to join. This is supported by various episodes of ''Star Trek: Enterprise, such as , which established that the United Earth Starfleet existed in the 2130s and 2140s.'' Minister Nathan Samuels represented United Earth at talks for the Coalition of Planets in 2155. ( ) :It is consistent with the term " " (as in "United Federation of Planets") to presume that the United Earth government at the time of ''Star Trek: Enterprise remained in place following the founding of the United Federation of Planets. Further evidence in this regard includes the 23rd century existence of a United Earth Space Probe Agency in TOS Season 1 and other agencies noted above under the jurisdiction of a Terran global government within the UFP.'' Politicians * Minister Nathan Samuels (2155; presided over the talks regarding the Coalition of Planets) * Councilman Jonathan Archer (2175-2183; represented United Earth to the Federation Council; previously ambassador to the Andorian Empire; later Federation President) : Archer's ambassadorship is from a 2268 biographical screen seen in . Apocrypha In the novel Articles of the Federation, it is revealed that United Earth came into existence in 2130 with the signing of a document called the Traité d'Unification at the Place de la Concorde in Paris, France; the Place de la Concorde later becomes the site of the Palais de la Concorde, the Federation's capitol building. The novel The Good That Men Do followed the notion that the last nation to become part of United Earth was Australia. The short story "Eleven Hours Out" in the anthology Tales of the Dominion War indicates that United Earth is a parliamentary system, as an unnamed Prime Minister of United Earth is described as touring the devastated city of San Francisco after the Breen attack of 2375, along with the President of the United States and Federation President Min Zife of Bolarus. The novel Starfleet: Year One features a character named Lydia Littlejohn, who served as President of United Earth during the Earth-Romulan War. If the apocryphal stories are accepted as being in continuity with one another, this may be an indication that United Earth utilizes both presidential and prime ministerial offices, akin to the systems of the present-day State of Israel or Italian Republic. (In such systems, the President is usually the head of state, and the Prime Minister is the head of government.) The Star Trek: Enterprise novel Last Full Measure reveals that United Earth was involved in a number of very low-level conflicts with factions on alien planets (not full governments) and a rebellion on Mars in the years prior to the Xindi attack of 2153; MACO forces played a decisive role in those conflicts. United Earth's military is also revealed to have inherited the martial funeral ceremony of flag folding. According to the unseen It's Federation Day! article created for the Picard family album in , Thomas Vanderbilt was the United Earth ambassador to the Federation Founding Ceremony. Category:Governments Category:Earth countries de:Vereinigte Erde nl:Verenigde Aarde